Lappi struggled to find his pace right from the start of Rally Chile’s gravel stages. Other drivers pulled away as the Finnish driver grappled with the setup of his Hyundai. Ultimately, Lappi retired on the final day of the rally after damaging the radiator of his car.
The event was somewhat underwhelming for Hyundai overall. Toyota secured a 1-2 finish and cut Hyundai’s lead in the manufacturers’ championship to 18 points.
Check out the full WRC standings here.
“We knew that it would be a difficult rally. With our two drivers (Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak) first and second on the road, and Esapekka lacking a bit of rhythm, I think we minimised the losses,” said Hyundai’s technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison, who also handled team principal duties in Chile.
“We could have lost more if we hadn’t set the right target for this rally. So, it’s positive,” Demaison added.
Lappi drove Hyundai’s third Rally1 car in five WRC rallies this season, retiring in four of them. His campaign was marred by technical issues as well as his own mistake in Rally Finland.
Lappi did, however, win his season opener in Sweden, but overall, the season was not very successful for him. Nonetheless, Demaison absolved the Finnish driver of blame.
“EP won in Sweden and scored points on day one and day two. In Finland, on day three, he pushed our competitors into a tight fight, and then what happened, happened,” Demaison said.
Demaison referred to Toyota drivers Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans, who both crashed out on the penultimate stage of Rally Finland. Lappi, meanwhile, was the top performer on “Super Sunday,” bringing ten valuable points to his team in the manufacturers’ championship battle.
“With this strategy, you can’t win at every rally. But it’s been quite positive for us so far: our third driver strategy allows us to score points and push others to, let’s say, not score points. So, we can’t complain,” Demaison explained.
The next round of the WRC season, Central European Rally, will take place in two weeks across the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria.
